The invention relates to an apparatus for feeding spine inserts for a machine for manufacturing book covers.
In book cover machines based on a horizontal processing principle [Liebau; Heinze, Industrial Bookbinding, Verlag Beruf+Schule, Itzehoe 1997, chapter 5.5.2; p. 399 ff], covering material fed by means of a covering material cylinder and coated with glue at a spreading roller is joined in a moving pass to linearly fed cover boards and spine inserts by means of a rolling-on operation. The book covers with the still projecting covering material edges are then transferred to a folding apparatus, by means of which the projecting edges are folded round the board edges and pressed onto the insides of the boards. Finally, the book covers are rubbed on by press rollers of a pressing station and conveyed in a delivery apparatus in stacks out of the book cover machine.
From European patent EP 0 631 957 an apparatus is known, in which portions of a spine insert running off a delivery roll are cut to length and combined synchronously, i.e. in a precisely positioned manner, with fed cover boards and glue-coated covering material in a rolling-on device. The spine insert is advanced by a pair of cutting length conveying rollers and positioned in a cutting device. A series of input roller pairs convey the cut-to-length, flexible spine insert through a conveying channel into the rolling-on device. For precise cutting and precisely positioned feeding of the spine insert, the cutting length conveying roller pair and the input rollers are driven in a clocked manner by a common, automatically controlled servomotor, wherein the cutting length conveying rollers are rendered inactive when the cut-to-length spine insert is conveyed out of the cutting position.
The apparatus is notable for a compact form of construction, which makes it possible to dispose a board screening feed hopper in an intermediate position of cover boards advanced in two successive strokes. The board screening feed hopper is required for the processing of rigid spine inserts fully trimmed on all sides, which are therefore pushed by the second stroke of the board feed synchronously with the cover boards into the rolling-on device. The board screening feed hopper, by virtue of being accommodated in the intermediate position, is highly accessible and very easy to attend. As a result of the use of the servomotor, the many driven input roller pairs and further guides, the outlay of the apparatus for feeding flexible spine inserts is relatively high.
In another known book cover machine based on a horizontal processing principle, the cut-to-length, flexible spine insert is deposited in the intermediate position of the board feed in that the spine insert, after being cut to length, is pushed by roller pairs, deflection devices and further guides in board feed direction into the board feed plane. The flexible spine insert is fed by the second stroke of the board feed to the rolling-on device. With said apparatus, however, there is no longer space to accommodate a board screening feed hopper, which therefore has to be accommodated between the cover boards stocked in a board feed hopper. The spatial conditions are confined and attendance, especially for the purposes of restocking and fault elimination, is made difficult. Particularly in the case of large format lengths, the trailing edge of the spine insert lies so far in front of the board pusher that the latter encounters the stationary spine insert at high speed, which in the case of wide, thin spine inserts leads to stiffness problems.
The object of the invention is to create an apparatus of the described type, which in a simple, attendance-friendly manner enables the precisely positioned and operationally reliable combining of flexible spine inserts with cover boards and covering material.
The flexible spine insert is brought counter to board feed direction into a position within the board feed plane, from which board pushers of the board feed take over the spine insert and combine it in a precisely positioned manner with the cover boards and the covering material. The trailing edge, at which the spine insert is pushed, lies for every format length immediately in front of the forward- and backward-moving board pusher, which is waiting in the rear reversing position, so that the board pusher encounters the spine insert at a relatively low speed.
According to an advantageous development, the spine insert may be pushed directly between the cover boards of the board feed hopper. This therefore offers the possibility of specially aligning not just the cover boards but also the spine insert by means of the board feed, which in two successive strokes slides forward over an intermediate position. On the other hand, the second stroke may be redundant if the cover boards and the spine insert are fed from the board feed hopper in one stroke directly to the joining point.
Another advantageous development provides that the feed be provided upstream of the intermediate station so that the flexible spine insert is simultaneously driven out of the intermediate station by the board pushers. Besides good accessibility of the feed of the flexible spine insert, there is also the possibility of placing the board screening feed hopper for rigid spine inserts above the intermediate station. The then separate feed hoppers for cover boards and rigid spine inserts may be of a far simpler design and the restocking of spine inserts in the feed hopper as well as the elimination of any faults which arise may be carried out easily and quickly.
The adaptation of the guides to the different thicknesses of the spine inserts is advantageously effected by exchanging suitably designed interchangeable parts. As a rule, one set of guides for flexible (=thin) spine inserts and one set of guides for rigid (=thick) spine inserts are required.